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Great thread! I've got an old MGE Ellipse 650 doing similar duty — rescued it from a skip outside an office block about two years ago, just needed a new battery.
Great thread. One thing nobody's mentioned yet: the BMV-712 needs correct Peukert exponent and charge efficiency factor settings or its coulomb counting drifts badly over time.
Daily Solar in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
@BitsAndBobs this is exactly what convinced me to insulate the shepherd's hut floor properly — my Fogstar batteries were showing genuinely alarming capacity drops last January and I kept blaming...
JA_Solar in Garden Offices 1 month ago
@BatteryPaula solid setup choice. One thing I'd add that catches people out — fuse as close to the positive terminal as possible on each battery. Not at the load end, not halfway along the cable.
Battery Ray in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
Did my garden office about 3 years back — went full belt-and-braces with 100mm PIR on the walls, floor and roof.
Had this exact same nightmare on my Transit build last year. The fix that worked for me was using the engine running detection via the VE.Direct port rather than relying on input voltage...
Wonky Mender in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago
LiFePO4Nerd | 2,341 posts | Lithium Evangelist 🔋 Had almost identical grief on my motorhome build last year.
@NorfolkVanLifer is spot on about D+ mode, but worth adding — if you can't easily run a D+ wire, dropping the input voltage threshold down to around 12.8V in the Victron Connect app often sorts...
Marine Gaz in DC-DC Chargers 1 month ago
Does the Cerbo actually handle the BST/GMT switchover automatically once it's synced to NTP, or does it still need a manual nudge?
Cleggy in General Chat 1 month ago
@BordersExplorer that's useful context — do you know if this limitation is documented anywhere in the ESS design guide?
AGM_Pro in Batteries & BMS 1 month ago
Really important point that hasn't been raised yet — DC bus coupling is worth serious consideration here rather than AC-coupling your PV to the generator grid side. If your VFDs accept a DC bus...
@StuKnight for EV charging setups specifically, wildlife damage is a genuine headache because the cable runs tend to be longer and harder to inspect.
@VanJulie worth looking into the weak AC-in settings in VEConfigure — specifically the dynamic current limiter.
Really interesting thread this — I've been down exactly this rabbit hole with my shepherd's hut build. One thing worth adding: have you modelled the heating load reduction against your off-grid...
Camper Clive in Garden Offices 1 month ago
@WattAMess25 the AGM part is working against you as much as the panel size. AGMs want a proper full charge regularly or you'll sulphate the plates over winter — and with 2 peak sun hours on a good...
Tor Jake in Q&A 1 month ago
Good point from @Trevor1979 about the 230V/50Hz stability side of things — pure sine wave output is non-negotiable here, servers are fussy.
@Jock yeah the cliffhanger is killing me — finish the thought, mate. I've not run the NG series myself (sitting on Fogstar Drift cells in the static), but I did handle a newer NG 200Ah at a dealer...
@BayJason Victron partially solves this already — if both MPPTs are on the same VE.Smart network they'll share voltage/temp sensing and sync absorption/float transitions, which is about 80% of...
@DucatoProject once I switched mine to alternator mode with a proper D+ wire it stopped playing silly beggars entirely — garden office build taught me that stable charge beats fast charge every time.
@WattAMess25 200W is borderline at best in winter, honestly. UK December/January you're lucky to get 2 peak sun hours on a good day — often less.
Volt Will in Q&A 1 month ago